Archinect - News

What could Trump’s economic plans do for the cost of building green?

2024-11-25T16:46:00-05:00

Proposed tariffs by the incoming Trump administration may increase the prices of many items at the store. But for architects and advocates working on more efficient and sustainable buildings, there’s fear that tariffs could impact specific materials and machines that are key to their work. Higher costs from tariffs, some say, may slow down the pick up of these techniques of residential and commercial construction, and make such buildings more expensive and less attractive to build.

Firms could be hard put to keep pace with the cost of procuring materials like mass timber and products such as heat pumps after the proposed blanket tariffs are enacted, explains FastCompany. This would add stress and uncertainty to the already lagging American building industry, which is considered behind Europe as far as efforts to increase efficiency standards are concerned. Domestic manufacturing would have to rise to the challenge or risk falling back into the wrong kind of "American Exceptionalism" that is both environmentally unproductive and at odds with a global consensus on building sustainability.

EU member states agree to major building emissions cuts at COP28

2023-12-12T18:21:00-05:00

If approved in its current form, the deal struck on Thursday night will also force member states to put solar panels on more buildings, starting with new public buildings and offices and expanding to include new homes by 2030. [...] It is a compromise on the European Commission’s original proposals to renovate the leakiest homes, which member states had fought fiercely.

The EU’s pledge mandates that all new buildings will have zero emissions from fossil fuels in that timeframe, with heating systems derived from fossil fuels phased out by 2040. The expansion of heat pump subsidies will be a decisive factor, along with the mandatory installation of solar panels on everything except heritage architecture, churches, and agricultural buildings by the decade’s end. Also at the conference, six other member states joined the U.S., Canada, and UK in pledging their commitments to the UNEP Buildings Breakthrough challenge that will further reduce emissions by 2030. Signatories will also have until 2035 to cut emissions in residential structures by at least 20%.

Still, the Climate Action Network’s Eva Brardinelli, told the Guardian: “The final agreement on the directive missed a significant opportunity to lift millions out of energy poverty and cut our dependence on fossil fuels.”

The changes are likely to be formally adopted via the European Parliament in th...

Washington State effectively bans fossil-fueled appliances in new construction

2023-11-30T13:39:00-05:00

It will soon become nearly impossible to install fossil-fueled appliances to heat new homes and businesses in Washington. [...] The codes will require new homes and buildings to meet the same total energy performance as those built with electric heat pumps while allowing builders flexibility to choose appliances. Basically, if builders choose gas appliances, they will need to make up the efficiency losses elsewhere in the construction.

The state’s building code update puts them in league with California, Maryland, and major cities New York, Los Angeles, and Boston to have adopted similar policies.

The new amendments offer a “watered-down” alternative to a proposed electric heat pump mandate that was abandoned in the wake of a federal ruling against Berkeley, California’s natural gas ban from 2019.

The state’s building and construction industry is one of many being targeted by lawmakers in an effort to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A heat pump revolution could bring much-needed building decarbonization

2023-02-06T12:09:00-05:00

By 2030, around a quarter of UK buildings should be heated using them, according to the UK government's climate advisory body, rising to 52% by 2050. Electrifying heating will also be key to decarbonising buildings in the US, says Melissa Lott, director of research at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. One study in San Francisco referred to heat pumps as the "single most impactful lever" to reducing emissions.

Communal heatmains can be used to overcome the challenges of digging expensive boreholes for heat pumps in private homes and urban apartment blocks where most of the UK’s population resides. The country’s push to heat half of its homes using heat pumps, which are evolving, puts it squarely in line with Germany and other states looking to leverage the technology in the interest of achieving sustainability goals.

A recently-announced New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) design contest is also attempting to tackle the affordability issue with window-frame prototypes that cost no more than $3,000 per unit and can be installed in less than two hours.

On the benefit and challenges of designing all-electric affordable housing

2023-01-19T13:28:00-05:00

In a few short years, policymakers and building designers have gone from pushing energy-efficient design and products—which saved folks money—to targeting carbon emission reductions, even if it costs more in the long run. This paradigm shift is rapidly changing expectations for the development and operation of affordable housing.

New York, Boston, and Los Angeles are three of America’s largest cities to have recently adopted some version of law or code changes mandating the design of new buildings (with the occasional exception for certain, typically smaller multifamily developments) be made all-electric.

The challenge for practitioners, according to authors Kimberly Vermeer and Walker Wells, is doing so equitably with a mind to costs, as the price per unit of electricity is typically much higher for consumers than traditional fossil fuels. The implementation of pricier but more energy-efficient heat pumps is also discussed as a huge technical and design obstacle for architects, along with the necessity of learning new vocabularies and more complex building performance metrics in the hopes of girding against the effects of climate change and preparing for the inevitability of electrification at a broad scale.

Heat pumps may hold the key to Germany's energy independence this winter

2022-12-06T12:08:00-05:00

After decades of heating their homes with relatively cheap Russian natural gas, Germans are facing exorbitant prices for energy. The search is on for an alternative source of warmth that is climate-friendly and free from natural gas. Enter, the heat pump.

The prohibitive price of units and installation is being covered by the government up to €60,000 ($63,000 USD). Still, it lags behind the Netherlands and other European counterparts in terms of the total number currently used across the country. Most estimates place contemporary heat pumps in the 250%-550% efficiency range (compared to 80% for traditional gas boilers), according to a report conducted by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Some DIY-ers are installing the pumps on their own, though companies like Valliant are trying to stay on top of the issue by establishing training centers to account for an estimated shortage of 175,000 skilled workers. The government says its goal is to install 500,000 pumps per year starting in 2024. Beginning in January, a banon new heating systems powered by less than 65% renewables will kick in.

NYCHA is challenging designers to create an affordable heat pump for 24,000 apartment units

2022-01-27T17:23:00-05:00

A creative answer to one of the most pervasive issues in American public housing is being sought by one of the largest civic authorities in the country as the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has issued a challenge to design an affordable new all-electric heat pump for the 21st century.

NYCHA has made design challenges a part of its program before. As Grist noted, the agency has previously issued similar challenges to older generations of industrial manufacturers, including a late-90s contest to design more energy-efficient refrigerators for its properties, which at the time, did not offer ample enough space for the appliances. A design from Maytag won the contest and was widely adopted by a number of other regional housing authorities in order to reduce energy costs.

Now, with the tragedy of this month’s devastating Bronx apartment fire in its recent purview, NYCHA is once again asking for help from the design community in solving a silent problem that has drawn increasing ...